babysiomai

1. Bangkok, Thailand

Ok, I know Thailand is just one country and Bangkok is just one city in Thailand, but it’s a step, right? We left Philippines morning of Oct. 6, 2009 at PAL, where, quite surprisingly, one of our FAs was one of the contestant who just entered the Pinoy Big Brother House last Oct. 4, 2009. I was sleeping when my dad woke me up just so I could take his photo with JP, the PBB contestant. Our trip was very much filled with ironies. We went to a Thai Seafood Restaurant and ordered Fried Chicken. We went to an authentic Filipino restaurant and ordered Tom Yung Kung. Most ironic of all, we went to Thailand and had dinners at that same Filipino Restaurant. Grr.

I loved Bangkok I almost cried when we were about to leave. It was very much like the Philippines, only a little better in most ways – culture, architecture, food. Here is the whole itinerary:

October 6, 2009
-Flight from MNL-BKK with Flight Attendant JP from PBB
-Check-in and rest at hotel
-Dinner at Pat Pong Area at a Seafood Restaurant (when I asked for the rest room, the guy at the counter led me to THE BACK OF THE BUILDING, TO AN ALLEY AND THEN ANOTHER BUILDING WHERE THE ELEVATOR DOORS HAD PHOTOS OF THAI GIRLS WEARING PLAYBOY LINGERIE -almost scared me. I was, like, where are you taking me? Hahaha. But yeah, the rest room was really there. And when we were trying to order fried crab meat, we asked the waiter if the serving of the food was good for two. He said, “no half” and we answered, “We’re not asking you to cut it in half, we want to know if this is good for two.” This frustrating conversation went on for several minutes until the waiter finally spelled on his paper “Don have”. I was so relieved to have finally understood what he meant. Ahhh ok, you don’t have fried crab meat!)

October 7, 2009
-Buffet breakfast at hotel
-Bangkok City Tour (Tha Tien Pier, several temples and Gems Gallery where I bought my ring. I’m coming back one of these years to get that 146K Baht worth of bangles. And I’m not even a fan of jewelry!)
-Power Gen at Impact Arena, Muang Thong Thani (Here I took advantage of the wifi to check on FB and chat with my mom and a few former officemates.)
-Lunch at Hong Kong Fisherman’s Suki and Restaurant (We had another frustrating conversation with our attendants regarding our orders here. We ordered several food and less than half of our orders came to our table. When we had our bill checked, the attendants came back to us with only three orders written on the bill when in fact we ate more. Of course, we decided not to argue. That was free food, man.)
-Dinner at Mabuhay Restaurant (Ahhh, yes, the Tom Yung Kung order)

October 8, 2009
-Shopping at Phyathai District after breakfast
-Window Shopping at Platinum Fashion Mall
-Window Shopping at Pantip Plaza (The all-gadgets mall)
-Street Food tripping along Petchburi Road
-Lunch at KFC Pantip Plaza
-Camwhoring at hotel, movie-watching at HBO
-Dinner at Grand Hyatt Erawan

October 9, 2009
-Whole day tour at Safari World
-Buffet Lunch
-Safari Drive
-Safari Park Jungle Walk and Eggs World
-Orangutan Show
-Sea Lion Show
-Elephant Show
-Dolphin and White Beluga Whale Show
-Spy War Show
-Dinner at Mabuhay Restaurant
-Shopping at Phyathai District

October 10, 2009
-Shopping at Phyathai District
-Lunch and Videoke at Mabuhay Restaurant
-Thai Massage at Phyathai District (My masseuse kept asking me, “Pen? Pen? Pen here?” as she poked at the back of my shoulders. I tried asking “what pen?” but when she just continued asking me “Pen?” I surrendered trying to understand her and just shook my head, “No.” It was only when the massage was finished that I realized she was asking if I was feeling pain! If only I knew, I would have said yes, you poke me and stretch me bad.
-Baiyoke Sky Hotel Observation Deck
-Dinner at Burger King, Suvarnabhumi Airport
-My first Dairy Queen Choco Chip Ice Cream ever
-Flight from BKK-MNL

I went to ANC’s Leadership Forum Part 2 today. I wasn’t able to get inside the UP School of Economics Auditorium but I was in front of the big Samsung LCD screen they set outside. It was sort of disappointing, not the event but the guests’ answers to the questions, but I was definitely entertained.

The opening of the forum was a surprise: It was Ping with an 8-minute speech informing us of his withdrawal from the 2010 elections, to think it’s not even time yet for formal declarations. I still would have liked it better if he was there, just so I could hear him speak about his plans for the country or his thoughts on current events. As for guests who were there, Erap Estrada was a joke. Bayani Fernando amused and annoyed me at the same time. Jejomar Binay fared better than the first two, but his ideas were pretty simplistic (note: not simple, but simplistic!). And Loren Legarda was- well, Loren. Her answers were well-thought and she delivered them in a very intelligent manner. She was undoubtedly the winner tonight.

The questions were more difficult compared to the May 11 batch, but the atmosphere tonight was light and less serious. Bayani’s standard line was “samin sa Marikina”, Erap’s line was “during my term/under my administration”, Binay’s was “doon sa Makati”, and Legarda… well, she had a lot to say so I never got any recurring phrases from her.

I will never forget Binay’s “piggeries”, or Bayani’s “above the law”, or Erap’s “joking/kidding aside” and “kukunin ko yung time ni Sen. Lacson”. Again, I didn’t get any lines from Loren. She was serious all through-out the show, and she made a lot of sense. But you know, humans tend to remember mistakes more than those that make sense. Haha. Not that it’s bad for Loren. That only means she’s still one of my options. And as for the other three, well… There’s still some time left to get ready before May 2010, and it’s not even campaign period yet. Goodluck to all of them! And same goes to those who were at the first forum, and even to Noli and Villar who both declined ANC’s invitations. May the most deserving person win. :)

Going on to less serious matters and more random stuff, did Loren get a Botox or something? Her face looked sort of stiff and stretched. Haha. Binay passed by in front of me too. I could almost hug his legs. And Patricia Evangelista minus the nose was beautiful, and her DSLR was even more beautiful. Bahhh, her camera’s lens makes me jealous. Anyway, I went to the forum with Kim. I asked him if I could go with him+co because I didn’t want to be a loner and I really wanted to watch it because we had no cable at home. At UPSE, we saw Roselyn, Ryan and Ate Jenna. After the forum Kim and I ate our very late dinner at McDo where we talked about gay matters. Haha.

So yeah, despite the rain, my activities today made me happy. Not entirely blissful, but at least I was entertained for the day. It kept my depression at bay. I’m also feeling really better compared to what I’ve been feeling since the start of the week. Sadly though, some things still manage to creep in my mind and fill me with anxiety. I learned that Mikhail is in UPD now but I’m not in UPD anymore so that’s sad. And then my jogging activity with my best friend didn’t push through. And then I never got to clean my closet, which means I won’t drink coffee tomorrow (I’ve been religiously drinking coffee every morning as a sort-of diet ritual) as a consequence for not accomplishing my clean-closet task. And then I heard someone’s name. And then I read it too. And then it’s past 12 midnight already so it’s another day again, which means that when I wake up, I’ll have to make another effort to put meaning back into my life.

And then, there’s this one other thing. I’m not sure if this is a bad thing or a good thing, and I might just be being ridiculously symbolic about this, and I’m not even sure yet if it’s true but- I think I’m growing my wisdom tooth. Just when I threw feelings that weren’t useful anymore. Just when I decided to make something out of my messy life. Just when I wanted to be better. Just in time.

Today I made an effort to pull myself together by making this “One Thing That Made Me Happy Today” List. I’ve been depressed since Monday evening and the bad weather this week made it worse. But I don’t want to feel so lonely and lost anymore. I’m going to find myself. “Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they let you in.” – Robert Frost